Details

General

Morphemic form: {im}D
New orthography: ima, taama, imani, imunga, imannga, inna, issuma, ikkua
Old orthography: ima, taima, imane, imunga, imánga, ivna, ivssuma, ivkua
Sources: [MFSJLK10], [SK71], [CWSL58], [CWSL51], [JP67], [CBBJRPIKJR97]
Combinations: View list
Right sandhi: Default/none
Inflection sandhi: Default/none, Demonstrative inflection
Stem type: Other

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

According to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [MFSJLK10], this demonstrative stem is classified as 'near speaker' and 'obscured'. However, in Kalaallisut, the original meaning seems to rather be something like 'beyond', especially in a past temporal sense (i.e. 'beyond a stretch of time'). In particular, according to Kleinschmidt [SK71], the adverbial forms can be used to denote 'long ago'.

The predicative form, ima, is used in a special sense: 'thus' (as is to be shown). It may be used with, or without, the prefix {ta(ð)}*, seemingly with no difference in meaning.

The pronominal forms do not appear to be used much. Older dictionaries [SK71], [CWSL58] record some of them, but in the new orthography, some of them are become indistinguishable from {dem}N.


Inflection

Inflection pattern:

Stem type: Other
Inflection sandhi: Default/none, Demonstrative inflection
Sources: [JP67], [CWSL51]

Stem before consonant Stem before vowel Notable forms
New orthography im im inna/taanna, issuma/taassuma, ikkua/taakkua, ima/taama, imani, imunga, imannga, -
Old orthography im im ivna/taivna, ivssuma/taivssuma, ivkua/taivkua, ima/taima, imane, imunga, imánga, -
Phonemic orthography im im imna/taimna, imcuma/taimcuma, imkua/taimkua, ima/taima, imani, imunga, imaŋŋa, -

Notes on inflection:

The inflection is regular for demonstrative stems:


Meanings and examples

I.e. 'as to be shown'. This is the meaning of the exclamatory/predicative form, ima, taama.

  • ima atsigaaq, he is as big as this/thus big [CBBJRPIKJR97]

    With the height indicated by something, e.g. with the hand.

  • ima issitsigaaq, it is so cold (that ...) [CBBJRPIKJR97]

    I.e., 'as cold as thus'.

  • imani/taamani, back then (in the past); further back than the most recent days [SK71]

    The prefixed form is more common.

  • imannga, from (longer) ago [SK71]
  • imunga, (to) longer time [SK71]

Search the corpus for further examples.


Tags

References